So it's over, and sadly, the results are much as I expected them to be. Though I'd hoped for a smaller proportion of seats for the Liberals, the punishment dealt to the NDP for their deplorable environmental platform is sufficient in my book.

From what I've seen of the results so far, my campaign went fairly well considering the amount of time/money I had to contribute and my relative inexperience from the start. A Liberal win in my riding was a near inevitability under our voting system so I'm actually quite happy with my showing.

For my part, it's really been a great experience. I've learnt a great deal about how a campaign is run, and dramatically improved on my public speaking skills. I've gained a renewed sense of confidence in my ability to represent myself in formal gatherings and I've met some really interesting people.

The people, though, that's what's been most interesting for me. Just the experience of meeting complete strangers with a unique understanding of their field, or their portion of the ecosystem was very rewarding: seniors with a serious passion about doing the Right thing by their grand-kids, and young people with that kind of passionate faith and dedication to a shared goal. This is what politics is about and I love it. If there's one lesson I am to take away from this experience, it must be no one can know everything and that there is real expertise (as well as willingness to contribute) in a variety of fields out there -- you just have to go looking for it.

Sadly, though, with the overall percentage that the Greens acquired in this race, once again we took a grand total of zero seats. And now, with STV having been defeated for its third and final time, BC will have another generation of unrepresentative politics in the Legislature.

[rant]

Joseph de Maistre said: "Every country has the government it deserves" and he was absolutely right. British Columbians have proven for the third and final time that they have no interest in better representation -- or perhaps more accurately put -- have no interest in learning about how they might be better represented.

The vast majority of anti-STV comments I've heard over the past month (with the exception of Stephen's) were largely uninformed or worse, based entirely on a combined ignorance of the subject and a disinterest in learning anything about it. BC will have exactly the government it deserves, one that operates best when the progressive majority is routinely ignored.

And for people like Stephen, who continually muddied the debate by claiming that STV wasn't as good as other options, and that the referendum needed to be more inclusive of other alternatives like MMP, thank you so much for screwing this up for the rest of us. Proportional representation is now off the table in BC for decades. Your claims that another voting system might be better might have had some merit if proposed to a minority government elected under STV, but your commitment to fear, uncertainty and doubt has ensured that this will not happen for a very, very long time.

[/rant]

The aforementioned bitterness aside, my experience has been on the whole very positive and I intend to run again if I'm still living in BC in 2013. Politics seems to suit me quite well actually -- it has, after all been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember. This whole process has been an honour and a privilege and I'm so glad to have had the opportunity to run.

Margaret found this North Shore News article covering me and one of the other North Shore Greens, Ryan Windsor and I thought that I'd share it here. If you see any other coverage, (good or bad) do let me know eh?

I participated in my first political debate last night -- as a candidate anyway. It was scary, humbling, nerve-racking, enlightening and altogether exciting. Overall, I would call it a positive experience.

Held in a United church, I took a seat at the table at the front of the sanctuary with the three other candidates Jane Thornthwaite (Liberal), Mo Norton (NDP), and Gary Hee (Conservative) and we fielded questions one at a time on a variety of topics. I didn't really like the format, as it didn't allow candidates to respond to claims by their competitors unless they were next in line, but for the most part the tone was civil and respectful (though the audience did get rather belligerent toward the Liberal candidate a few times.

For my part, I suppose that I performed as expected. As first-time candidates often do, I lacked polish, used some terminology that shall we say, "didn't resonate well with some people" and most importantly choked on the first two questions as they were in areas on which I wasn't all that well versed yet.

After those first two though, I got my act together and did very well. I was clear, concise and did a very good job and positioning the Greens as a viable alternative to the Liberals & NDP.

When it was all over, I had a number of people take a moment to come up to me and congratulate me on a good debate and let me know that I'd flipped their vote away from one of the other candidates. I can't tell you how good that felt. Though I clearly could have done better, I am quite proud of myself :-)

I'd also like to take a moment here to thank my brother, Melanie, Margaret and Quinn for coming out to support me last night. As intimidating as the whole process was, having them in the audience really did make it so much easier on me. Thank you so much guys.

My next (and last?) debate is this Thursday at 7pm. As Quinn & Melanie took notes for me from this last debate, I shall endeavour to remedy my previous shortcomings and give the other candidates another run for their money then.

And so, with just over 2weeks left in the campaign, (election & referendum on the 12th people! Do your research!), I've started the process of booking into debates for my riding of North Vancouver-Seymour. If you live in the riding, or just feel like coming out to see me debate the other three candidates, here are the times & locations:

A general debate

Date: Monday May 4, 2009
Time: 7-9pm
Location: Mount Seymour United Church, 1200 Parkgate Avenue, North Vancouver

Hosted by the Teachers Association

Date: Thursday, May 7, 2009
Time: 7-9 pm
Location: Windsor Secondary (Multipurpose Room), 931 Broadview Dr, North Vancouver

To my friends and family in the area, I'd really appreciate the moral support if you can show up to one or either of these. It's my first time with such responsibility, and it's always good to have people you care about around for this kind of thing.

I received the most wonderful email from a voter in my riding yesterday and I just had to share it so here it is, published with permission:

Hello Mr. Quinn

I basically just wanted to say thanks for running in the provincial election so I can vote for somebody I actually want to vote for, rather than just choosing the lesser of two evils.

Love the CBC T-shirt. Classic, classic, classic.

She is of course, referring to my pic on my bio page on the Green Party website. I responded with a resounding thankyou, a request to re-post her message and a link to CBC Shop where she could buy one of her own :-)

Sometimes, politics can be really quite personal, and fun.

I'm probably going to be blogging about this sort of thing for the duration of the election, but bear with me here.

I got an email today... four of the same email... so far -- from concerned citizens opposed to sport hunting of Grizzly Bears in the Great Bear rain forest. As part of their efforts to ban the practise, their supporters are sending a form letter email to all the candidates in this election looking for their support.

It's ironic really... humbling too. I've been on the other side of campaigns like this one dozens of times and in every case I know what to expect as far as effectiveness goes. Legislation needs the support of powerful people in government and in a majority, it needs support of a ruling party that may or may not be interested in what these people have to say.

Pick any subject: Cancer research, Net Neutrality, Transit, and yes, the Grizzlies of Northern BC and you'll find a battery of financial interests behind each of them pushing the controlling party away from the public good. Our antiquated First Past the Post system concentrates power in the hands of a single party (and realistically, a single party leader) who cannot possibly hold a mandate on all issues for the majority of voters. And as a result, the needs of the majority cannot ever be properly served.

This Grizzly campaign has my full support, but sadly under our current system, that support doesn't mean much in the Legislature unless it comes from one of two people who have already shown themselves to be more interested in obtaining power than doing anything constructive with it. This province needs a new form of representation that more accurately reflects the demographics our Legislature is supposed to represent and forces parties to work together to do the work of the people. What we've got right now isn't even close.

If you've read this far, I encourage you to take a look at STV and learn about how it can help our government better represent the diverse needs of the province. This upcoming election is also a referendum on whether or not we should adopt such a system so it's worth your time to figure this out. STV isn't perfect, but it's way better than what we've got.

It's been something of a whirlwind so far. As I mentioned earlier, the usual vetting and "ease-in" for a candidate was more or less fast-tracked for me given my extensive previous experience in the party and the tight deadline for getting candidates on the ballot. Within the first few hours of my acceptance, I received about three phone calls from organisers within the party and by the next day, two of the three other Green candidates on the North shore had contacted me with offers to help me get the signatures I needed to get on the ballot.

For the uninitiated, here's how it works. Anyone can run for political office, but (s)he must first do the following:

1. They must collect 75 valid signatures of nomination from voters in the riding.

   This is usually handled by setting up in a public place with a few volunteers, cheery faces, coffee and some clipboards. Everyone fans out and asks people to sign their name, address and signature to support a candidate's right to be on the ballot. The results are then collected and sent to Elections BC, who checks the addresses to assure that they are in fact in the riding. For this reason, smart candidates collect 100+ signatures, just in case some of the addresses are disqualified.

2. If they intend to run under a party's banner, they must be vetted and approved by that party.

   This is entirely an internal concern for the party and each party handles it differently. Normally though it involves interviews and background checks etc. to make sure that the candidate selected is the best choice to represent the party.

3. Lastly, they need $250 for the administration involved. If you're running with a big party, they usually help you with that, but since the greens can't really afford it, I've paid for this out of my own pocket.

As mentioned above, #2 wasn't an issue, but #1 was going to be a problem. After all, I'm what they call a parachute candidate (a candidate running on a ballot for a riding in which (s)he doesn't actually reside). I didn't have any friends who live in North Vancouver-Seymour, so it wasn't like I could just round up names from my social circle. No, the signatures had to come from complete strangers, people I was hoping to represent after the election in May.

The experience was rather humbling actually. When you start out on something like this, it's both scary and exciting, but when a little old lady shakes your hand with such faith and admiration, you stop for a second and take a mental step back: "I'm so glad you're runing here" she said, "the other parties don't understand, we need to do something about the environment and they just keep bickering".

I smile, thank her for her support and hand her my business card -- I'm sort of in a state of shock really: I knew well that this whole campaign was going to be scary and stressful, but the idea of taking on the responsibility of representing this woman and thousands of others like her in the Legislative Assembly... this is a lot bigger than I thought going in. But it's Good work, important work and no one else was doing it. ...and I really am honoured to be doing it.

As it turns out, the signature acquisition wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. The Green Party has a lot of support all over the province and having set up outside the local library and mall, we racked up 125 signatures in about three hours. I offer huge thanks to my brother Matthew and my neighbour Cat for coming out to help me at such an ungodly hour, and a special thanks goes to Michelle Corcos, Green candidate for North Vancouver-Lonsdale who showed up with a trunkfull of leaflets and signage as well as her nine-month-old to show us how it's done and help collect as well.

So far though, the whole process has been really, really exciting (though tiring). I've received such amazing support from Michelle Corcos and Ryan Windsor, two candidates on the North Shore in how to do... well everything. and the campaign is likely to get even more crazy now that they're talking about a collective fundraising effort. I'll continue to post here as things develop though :-)

I got an email from a friend of mine (who would prefer to remain nameless) today containing a short list of ridings in BC not yet running a Green Party Candidate. She then followed it with a mischevous suggestion: "You should run!".

The idea was crazy really. While I have a lot of experience canvassing for candidates both here and in Toronto, I'd never run as a candidate myself. I don't have any money for a race, or a campaign manager, or any idea how to wage a campaign really. What I do have is some serious skill when it comes to thinking on my feet and talking about things about which I'm passionate... and so the thought occured to me: "Why not?"

I sat down and thought out what I wanted to say and emailed the Green Party's BC office with the following:

I'm unsure as to the proper format of emails like this one, so do forgive me if this appears too informal or unpolished for the occasion, but I'd very much like to run with the provincial Green Party in North Vancouver-Seymour if you're still looking for a candidate there.

I've been a Green Party member since July '07 and have volunteered for door-to-door canvassing with Adrianne Carr's campaign here in Vancouver Centre on multiple occasions. Before I was a Green, I served the NDP in Jack Layton's and Michael Shapcott's ridings, canvassing there as well.

I also have a strong activist background with my work in public space circles both in Toronto and here in Vancouver. I've handled a series of radio and television interviews as well as public speaking engagements with City Council, the Toronto Police and the general public with confidence.

Lastly, I've long taken an active role in the understanding of a variety of environmental issues, focusing primarily on energy production/conservation and waste reclamation/disposal.

I can't promise you victory in North Vancouver-Seymour, given the numbers, no honest person could make such a claim. However, I can assure you that I'd represent the party well and do everything I could to bolster our standings there in advance of an eventual STV election.

If this sounds good to you, please give me a call or drop me an email. My contact info is below.

As it turns out, the person vetting the applications is someone I've worked with in the past, and he called me inside of an hour after I hit "send". We talked briefly about what was involved and he then informed that since we'd worked together for a while now, there was no need for a formal interview process -- the seat was mine if I wanted it. My hands shook a bit at the thought, but I said yes: I'm now the Green Party candidate for North Vancouver-Seymour.

The riding is a beautiful one, and likely to be rather right-leaning economically. My plan then will be to go after as much of the Liberal vote as I can based on their environmental record, specifically their support of run-of-river power generation and their decision to privatise the whole thing. Gateway will be a big one as well.

The truth is that the chances of my winning are slim, but they're there and I'm going to do my best to represent the interests of my party and simultaneously promote STV. Should be fun :-)

People have been sending these my way for days now and the activity seemed so very contrary to my usual behaviour, that I thought that I'd give it a shot. I'm not going to "tag" anyone to do this though since this is my blog and not bloody Facebook, but if you want to share your own, you can post it or link to your own post here in the comments.

Here's the deal. This is a list of 25 random things about me. They're personal, so if you want to know more about me, this might be a scary place to start, but it's your call:

1. I am a very private person. This may come as a surprise to someone who doesn't know me, as I do after all maintain a blog and all kinds of online profiles. Look carefully though and you'll realise that there's nothing all that personal about me anywhere. I don't share. I'm going to try to make this post an exception.
2. I'm happy to listen to others though. People like to talk to me -- gods know why. I like to think that I'm a pretty good listener and that my lectures are often helpful.
3. I never used to care about the environment. In fact, when I moved to Ontario, it was the furthest thing from my mind. It wasn't until I realised that so many people still burned coal to make electricity that I got involved.
4. As part of a seventh grade public speaking exercise, I wrote a speech titled "Why Does Everyone Talk About Saving the Environment, but No One Does Anything About It?" (or something to that effect). I was then voted as the one to give the speech in front of the whole school. I was so terrified that I skipped a complete paragraph from my cue cards.
5. I was, and still am, terrified at the prospect of public speaking. In recent years, I've actively combated this fear by repeatedly putting myself in situations where I must speak publicly in one form or another. It's working.
6. I don't try to save the world out of guilt, or a feeling of responsibility. I do what I do purely out of a sense of principle: I honestly believe that there is a Right way and Wrong way to interact with this planet, and I fight to ensure the former. As Mark Twain said: "Always do right. This will gratify some and astonish the rest".
7. I am seriously afraid that I will waste away here in Vancouver. Most days I feel as if any ambition I had was left behind in Toronto.
8. It is because of this fear that I've avoided doing things "for me" in the past like joining a choir. I've always felt like I have a responsibility to act on the aforementioned principles and forgo my own wants until those goals are achieved, but the hollowness and lack of purpose I've felt since returning have caused me to consider some selfish options. I still feel that this is a mistake, but I don't know what else to do.
9. I love my job. I love the work, the fact that it's constantly challenging and that I'm being given the power/responsibility to write some really fucking awesome code.
10. I often burn 90% of my work day spinning my mental wheels trying to get my brain out of its funk. I believe this to be related to my poor diet and sleeping schedule... at least I hope that's the case.
11. I'm so afraid of what it might be if it's not diet or rest that I won't talk to a doctor about it.
12. I'm constantly concerning myself with others' impressions of me. Alone, at home working on my computer, walking down the street, writing a blog, or deputing at City Hall, the question of how my words may be construed 20years from now is a serious concern to me.
13. I often catch myself reliving or daydreaming about past or potential future conversations. What was / could've been said, or what will be / should be said, and the rebuttals for each. These conversations sometimes cross over from the mental space into real out-loud annunciations for my part of the exchange -- though this is usually only at home as I'm getting ready for work.
14. I've developed deep emotional attachments to a number of people scattered around the world. These feelings aren't romantic, but rather almost familial and definitely protective.
15. I think that my unwillingness to share is likely directly connected to my inability to commit emotionally to someone. Either that or I just haven't met the right girl yet.
16. My childhood was really quite horrible. My family was wonderful, but my school life in Langley has probably damaged me permanently. Don't raise your kids in the suburbs folks, it doesn't do anyone any good.
17. My single bastion of sanity in high school was choir practise with Mr. Thompson and Mr. Rahn. They gave me something into which I could pour myself at a time when all I wanted was shut the whole world out. Had it not been for Thompson Tran, the guy who dragged me into choir in the first place, I think that I would be a very different person today.
18. My parents actively discouraged me from taking music, art, shop, or drama classes in high school. I was told that such activities were for the dumb kids and that I, as a smart person shouldn't waste my time with them. I'm not bitter about this, it's just unfortunate that I missed such an opportunity for a creative outlet for so many years.
19. I honestly do think that I'm really fucking smart about a lot of things. I don't care if this makes me appear arrogant, condescending or superior. The way I figure it, so long as I'm open to the possibility that someone out there is smarter than I am and I embrace their opinions when I meet them, then it's all good.
20. I'm attracted to people who are smarter than I am, or have an understanding of the universe drastically different from my own.
21. I have an image in my head of the girl I'm supposed to be with. I've had dreams about her for years. In these dreams she has long, straight, brown hair and wears a long, stretchy, cotton grey dress. She sings and plays guitar. I am aware that harbouring a fantasy image of a non-existent mate is counter-productive and I don't care.
22. I'm sometimes frustrated by the maintenance a friendship requires. My feelings toward people don't change with the distance between us or the time between our visits, yet many of my friends seem to think otherwise and try to reconnect repeatedly. I don't begrudge them this, but it's also really hard to make time for everyone as well as myself.
23. I vividly remember dozens of instances where I've been wrong about something. In all of these cases, I've been sure and was later proven ignorant. This is a serious concern for me so I usually use non-committal fragments in my sentences to assure my position as a non-authority on a topic... Unless I think that I am an authority, at which point any mistakes haunt me permanently.
24. I cannot tolerate being called "stupid". It's a trigger word for me. I'm alright with naive or ignorant, though these words do flare me up a bit -- usually enough to get me to ask question after question until I'm no longer worthy of either word.
25. I use the regret model for my decision making: I imagine how I would feel looking back on a situation 20years later and then decide to go with the option that I would likely lead to the least regret.

A short time ago, my grandmother told me about this leadership program running here in Vancouver thinking that I'd be interested. I looked into it and she was right: this kind of thing is right up my alley.

I decided to apply, which was a rather complicated process. It involved a reference letter, a resumé, and a series of open-ended questions, so I've had my work cut out for me in my off hours lately.

The real problem for me is that while I already have a long list of reference letters and an extensive resumé, neither of these are really geared toward a program like this. Thankfully, Stephen came through with a wonderful reference letter, and a few hours with Open Office saw me through updating my resume.

The fun part was the series of questions. I had the option to choose from a list, and I thought I'd share this one:

Q: Is there anybody that has had a particular influence on your way of working and thinking? Who and why?

A: When I was roughly ten years old, my mother asked me: "If you could have either power or influence, which one would you choose?" It was a difficult question for a young child, but it didn't take long for me to realise that while power is transitory, influence has lasting effects, becoming part of the cultural fabric.

It's with the above thinking in mind that I chose Gene Roddenberry in answer to this question. He painted a picture of humanity's future, and his hard work had considerable influence on my development. I came to understand the importance of diversity in a society, and embraced the idea that we can learn to direct our energies toward bettering ourselves rather than exploiting others for personal gain. This is all Gene's fault, and I intend to thank him by doing everything I can to get us all closer to his vision.

That's right, I picked Gene Roddenberry :-P Who better to inspire you?

I'll let you know if I'm accepted.